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Crops, floodies, capris, bermuda shorts — we've seen a LOT of variations on the “summer suit.” As the season winds to a close, we're curious — are cropped legs ever appropriate for the office?
For our $.02…. We've seen a lot of people wearing cropped pants at the office — but really only one has pulled them off, and we're 90% sure it had more to do with her stature (VERY successful person) and less to do with the great suit with cropped legs. Personally, we wouldn't spend the money on a suit with cropped pants or bermuda shorts as the bottom — we'd rather just wear a skirt suit if it's an issue of being cool in the summertime, and we'd rather just wear the pants if it's an issue of comfort or wanting/needing to sit in an unladylike way (e.g., sorting piles of paper on the floor or something).
We're not saying the cropped pantsuit wouldn't look great for a family event where you want to look semi-dressed up — a christening, maybe, or baby shower, or afternoon tea at a hotel, or something like that — but for the office, we just don't see it.
But hey, maybe we're totally wrong — what's your opinion?
Res Ipsa
I would say cropped pants are appropriate on “casual Fridays.” I can’t see wearing them meeting with clients or even supervisors.
conservative
For people in a really casual office, I can understand a walking short, but a suit is a suit and it shouldn’t look casual. Cropped pants as part of a suit is so wrong to me and it looks unprofessional. Maybe I am too conservative, but the look is just off to me. I am right there with you when you say why not just wear a skirt.
mj
Cropped pants are A-OK in Silicon Valley, suit or not. And I’d imagine the same for OC or LA offices, being a SoCal girl myself. I would NEVER wear them to the office in NY or London (where I worked previously). NEVER.
Janet
These are expressly forbidden in my business casual BigLaw firm. Sometimes support staff can get away with it, but they are NOT okay for attorneys.
I think that they can be cute, and I might consider wearing one to a non-work social event, but I wouldn’t bother buying a suit that I can’t wear to my office.
City Girl
Suits with anything but pants or a skirt are just not ok for me — like “conservative” said above, a suit shouldn’t look casual.
In my office, especially for attorneys, cropped pants are not ok. Sometimes our admins wear them (like when no one senior is around that day), but honestly I wish people would save them for weekends.
I used to be very pro-workplace casual in the late 90s, but getting older and going to law school means that I am really of the mind that a professional job requires work clothes. Even in a casual work environment, I think pants or a skirt are more appropriate than anything cropped.